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Contents

The officials of courts regnant have a dual responsibility. The regent's court is both the regent's household and his government. His court is build around the people who are dependent on him, those he trusts, and those most loyal to him. In an ideal court these three categories apply to everyone.
Every household starts off with a Steward, and those of any size at all also contain a Chamberlain and a Keeper of the Wardrobe. Depending on the history of the domain the regent rules, these offices might have different names or different subordinates departments, but they are generally found in all domains.

The Steward is the chief financial and legal officer for the regent. Within the household, the steward handles the money, audits the accounts and oversees the whole household for the regent. Within the domain, the steward handles the money, oversees income from taxation and other sources, and makes sure the domain is running smoothly. The steward is assisted by the treasurer and chief justice. In some domains the steward is strong and the treasurer and chief justice are specialists who aid him. In other domains the steward is more of a policy official, a courtier of the regent who advocates policies the regent wishes to pursue and the treasurer and chief justice are the executors of this policy, more than mere functionaries, they are key officials who none the less report to the steward. In other domains there is no steward, and the treasurer and chief justice are key officials in their own right. Also, sometimes the history of the domain has seen the legal aspects of the steward's portfolio moved elsewhere, often into the Chancellor's purview.

In a noble household, the Chamberlain runs the household for the lord. When that noble is also a regent, sometimes the chamberlain remains the senior household figure, albeit a great household with a palace and a great court regnant. Other times a chamberlain can emerge as a key official because of the close proximity and trust a chamberlain can win. Even when his position in state maters is limited, the fact that the chamberlain wakes the regent in the morning, dresses him, and runs his household means he has influence. The chamberlain also has important ceremonial functions in coronations and other such things. When a chamberlain emerges as a key official it is usually either in diplomacy, where the chamberlain represents the person of the regent, or in finance, in place of the steward.
== Keeper of the Wardrobe ==
The Keeper of the Wardrobe is another household officer who occasionally emerges in domain politics as a key official. Like the chamberlain, his proximity to the regent and his ability to win trust have seen some departments of the wardrobe become state offices. As the regent travels about his domain, his wardrobe travels with him in a cabinet, and as he dresses every morning those who assemble around his cabinet to brief him are kind of inner circle. The keeper of the wardrobe is often a leader of this cabinet meeting. When a keeper of the wardrobe rises to become a state official, some other key office lays vacant.

The Chancellor is the officer who runs the archive of records, include the great decrees of the domain, its patents of office, its legal rulings, property records, and naturally bears the great seal of the realm which is affixed to any important document to demonstrate its official sanction by the regent. Such documents are then stored in the chancellery. Some chancellors remain little more than personal notaries of the regent, making official notice of when laws are decreed and patents issuted. Others become important administrators owing to the records they maintain. This often results in chancery courts in which justices selected by the chancellor make rulings on matters manged by the chancellery. Property, nobility, or sometimes high courts of appeal can all be part of the chancellor's function. As such, occasionally chancellors become the senior law officer in the domain.

The Marshal, also called a constable or captain general, serves as the senior military officer in the domain. A very important office in warlike domains, it can be quite obscure in domains that do not fight wars.

The Chancellor holds the great seal, but when the chancellor is an opponent of the regent on some matter, or on many matters, many regents seek to elevate some other officer to perform the same function. This is very often how the Chamberlain and Keeper of the Wardrobe become key officials. Other times some other person is elevated, and their only function is that they carry a new seal, the regent's private seal, or privy seal. Strengthening a household officer can be done by granting them the regent's privy seal, but this can be an entirely new officer.